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How can I remove Bookmarks Toolbar from the Bookmarks menu?

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Bookmarks Toolbar is useless. If I want a site I frequent I can get there by typing 2 or 3 letters into the address bar so what's the point? I have hidden the bar from view but when I do need to use the Bookmarks menu for something I don't visit very often I have to scroll farther down because of the crap at the top that I can't remove, the worst offender being the empty Bookmarks Toolbar item. How can I remove this easily? I mean, no messing with chrome or anything like that, I just want to tell it to go away.

Note to programmers: I should be able to simply right click on this and click Delete but this is not available. Shame on you for forcing us to live with this waste of space.

Bookmarks Toolbar is useless. If I want a site I frequent I can get there by typing 2 or 3 letters into the address bar so what's the point? I have hidden the bar from view but when I do need to use the Bookmarks menu for something I don't visit very often I have to scroll farther down because of the crap at the top that I can't remove, the worst offender being the empty Bookmarks Toolbar item. How can I remove this easily? I mean, no messing with chrome or anything like that, I just want to tell it to go away. Note to programmers: I should be able to simply right click on this and click Delete but this is not available. Shame on you for forcing us to live with this waste of space.

All Replies (10)

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Add code to the userChrome.css file below the default @namespace line.

See my reply here for selectors you can use to hide bookmark menu items.

Add code to the userChrome.css file below the default @namespace line.


@namespace url("http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul"); /* only needed once */

#bookmarksToolbarFolderMenu,
#bookmarksToolbarFolderMenu+menuseparator {
 display:none !important;
}

The customization files userChrome.css (user interface) and userContent.css (websites) are located in the chrome folder in the Firefox profile folder.

  • Create the chrome folder (lowercase) in the <xxxxxxxx>.default profile folder if this folder doesn't exist
  • Use a plain text editor like Notepad to create a (new) userChrome.css file in the chrome folder (file name is case sensitive)
  • Paste the code in the userChrome.css file in the editor window
  • Make sure that the userChrome.css file starts with the default @namespace line
  • Make sure that you select "All files" and not "Text files" when you save the file via "Save file as" in the text editor as userChrome.css.
    Otherwise Windows may add a hidden .txt file extension and you end up with a not working userChrome.css.txt file

Modified by cor-el

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I know you are trying to be helpful but you didn't read my question all the way through or you would have noticed that I said " I mean, no messing with chrome or anything like that, I just want to tell it to go away."

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You can use the Stylish extension to have easier access to user interface and website customization.

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Third party software just to get rid of something that I should be able to switch off by right clicking if the programmers were on the ball??

You're kidding, right?

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You do not want to use code in userChrome.css, so the only alternative is to use an extension like Stylish instead. You can't achieve this via another way.

Creating a chrome folder and the userChrome.css file is the easiest way to customize Firefox in a lot of ways to suit your needs with built-in means. To modify the appearance of websites there is the userContent.css file. It is really not that difficult and you should consider at least to give this a try.


Firefox uses the term chrome to refer to the user interface and uses the "chrome://" protocol to access its own internal files and also access files from extensions (there is no connection whatsoever with Google Chrome).

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I guess that means you can't help me, then. And you didn't even offer to pass this problem on to the programmers either.

You know, when I started using FireFox it didn't have Bookmarks Toolbar. I didn't ask for it to be added and there isn't really a proper way to get rid of it. Its almost enough to make someone start looking at other browsers.

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There is no built-in way to remove built-in items from a menu, so we can only offer workarounds to do this via other ways. The Bookmarks Toolbar item has been present from the very first start, so it isn't likely. The Unsorted Bookmarks folder at the bottom of the list got added at a later time. The developers leave making such changes that are only used by a small amount of users to extension developers. It is not possible to add all wanted features to the basic Firefox.

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So what you are saying is that its not worth bothering to tell the developers that this should be able to be turned off because they don't care about "small stuff". That really makes me feel that my concerns are important to them.

I am absolutely certain that Bookmarks Toolbar appeared in the Bookmarks menu after an "upgrade" about 3 years ago. I distinctly remember discussing how useless it is and how thoughtless it was for the programmers to not provide an easy way to get rid of it with another Firefox user at the time.

And BTW: The Unsorted Bookmarks item is near the top of the Bookmarks Menu, right below Bookmarks Toolbar, not at the bottom of the menu. It is on the bottom of the list when you open the bookmarks as a separate window (Called Library for some obscure reason).

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The Unsorted Bookmarks is below the Bookmarks Toolbar folder in the "Show your bookmarks" drop-down list next to the star on the Navigation Toolbar. The code for userChrome.css was for the Bookmarks menu on the menu bar.

If you or anyone else who reads this thread like to hide the Bookmarks Toolbar folder and the Unsorted Bookmarks in that drop-down list then you can use this code.

@namespace url("http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul"); /* only needed once */

#BMB_bookmarksToolbar,
#BMB_unsortedBookmarks,
#BMB_unsortedBookmarks + menuseparator {
 display: none !important;
}

#bookmarksToolbarFolderMenu,
#bookmarksToolbarFolderMenu+menuseparator {
 display: none !important;
}

I've noticed that all my replies in this thread are marked as unhelpful, so I'm sorry that I can't help you. The developers need to make decisions bout adding what features and it is their decision and we can't change this. The people that help out on this forum are just normal users like you.

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Support supports the version we have now.

To propose changes to future versions of Firefox, you can try one or more of these: